05 Mar - dace and Don
Back in Vancouver with only one day to see people, scour the city, and play a show! We get back into town in time for me to visit dace and Adele at their design studio. dace is the fantastic Vancouver fashion designer, now garnering international acclaim, whose clothes I’ve been wearing exclusively on this tour. Beautiful work.
So I am introduced to the ordered chaos of sewing tables and fabrics and measuring tape and bolts and racks of clothes that comprise their studio. Located in a funky old warehouse building, the solid wood beams, steel, and concrete floors contrast the delicate fabrics and summer dresses flowing from their hangers. I love it! We have a great meeting—no doubt that these funky, inspired women create such beautiful designs. Definitely check out her work here!
That night, I perform with Sam at the Rowing Club. There are seven performers doing a few songs each, songwriter in the round sort of thing, raising money for Starlight, Starbright. Each month hundreds of people fill the audience for a worthy charity and enjoy music and dinner.
Don and Masa snapping pictures before the show!
Sam and I are in the first line up with 2007 International Fingerstyle Champion Don Alder. Another phenomenal instrumental guitarist from Japan is on the lineup, as well as Bertram Scott and his hypnotizing songs. Don performs on a harp guitar, an amazing instrument with two necks arching out from the body of the guitar. It’s an instrument unlike any I’ve ever seen. Resting on a guitar stand on the elevated stage where we’ll be playing, it draws a curious, reverent gaze from people as they enter the hall. The guitar is indeed stunning, and I can’t wait to hear Don’s expert fingers bring it to life.
During the first set, we all play one song and the audience absorbs the music with awe and attention. Watching Don and Masa perform is awesome, as their fingerstylings and percussive hammering on the guitar yields the most inventive, inspiring music. But when it comes time for Don to perform another song, a bizarre accident awakens all of us.
As Don chooses a guitar from his stand, he somehow edges the stand off the stage. It and the harp guitar fall at least three feet to the ground, and the audience lets out an audible gasp. The next few moments are frozen in time as we all stare at the guitar, unable to assess the damage to the instrument. Finally, one of the organizers goes to gently recover the guitar, only to find one of the necks cracked clean off.
A true performer, Don begins his next song and the accident doesn’t even seem to phase him—allow Sam insists that the performance was slightly more. . .passionate. Of course, from my own unpleasant accident, I happen to know of an expert luthier in Vancouver, and Don and I connect after the show. The next night Sam and I are playing at Fibonacci’s in Penticton, where Don and Masa are scheduled to perform two nights later (beginning their two week tour through BC). I offer Don what consolation I can!
Sam limbering up at Fibonacci's
Enjoying a delicious dinner at Truffle Pigs Cafe--the gem of Field BC. In a tiny cafe, we play to a truly international audience hailing from Japan, New Zealand, Spain...and the wine is pretty good too! I get to hang out with Andrew, who I met on my first tour and is still the inspiration behind the worst hangover I've ever suffered while on tour...
So I am introduced to the ordered chaos of sewing tables and fabrics and measuring tape and bolts and racks of clothes that comprise their studio. Located in a funky old warehouse building, the solid wood beams, steel, and concrete floors contrast the delicate fabrics and summer dresses flowing from their hangers. I love it! We have a great meeting—no doubt that these funky, inspired women create such beautiful designs. Definitely check out her work here!
That night, I perform with Sam at the Rowing Club. There are seven performers doing a few songs each, songwriter in the round sort of thing, raising money for Starlight, Starbright. Each month hundreds of people fill the audience for a worthy charity and enjoy music and dinner.
Don and Masa snapping pictures before the show!Sam and I are in the first line up with 2007 International Fingerstyle Champion Don Alder. Another phenomenal instrumental guitarist from Japan is on the lineup, as well as Bertram Scott and his hypnotizing songs. Don performs on a harp guitar, an amazing instrument with two necks arching out from the body of the guitar. It’s an instrument unlike any I’ve ever seen. Resting on a guitar stand on the elevated stage where we’ll be playing, it draws a curious, reverent gaze from people as they enter the hall. The guitar is indeed stunning, and I can’t wait to hear Don’s expert fingers bring it to life.
During the first set, we all play one song and the audience absorbs the music with awe and attention. Watching Don and Masa perform is awesome, as their fingerstylings and percussive hammering on the guitar yields the most inventive, inspiring music. But when it comes time for Don to perform another song, a bizarre accident awakens all of us.
As Don chooses a guitar from his stand, he somehow edges the stand off the stage. It and the harp guitar fall at least three feet to the ground, and the audience lets out an audible gasp. The next few moments are frozen in time as we all stare at the guitar, unable to assess the damage to the instrument. Finally, one of the organizers goes to gently recover the guitar, only to find one of the necks cracked clean off.
A true performer, Don begins his next song and the accident doesn’t even seem to phase him—allow Sam insists that the performance was slightly more. . .passionate. Of course, from my own unpleasant accident, I happen to know of an expert luthier in Vancouver, and Don and I connect after the show. The next night Sam and I are playing at Fibonacci’s in Penticton, where Don and Masa are scheduled to perform two nights later (beginning their two week tour through BC). I offer Don what consolation I can!
Sam limbering up at Fibonacci's
Enjoying a delicious dinner at Truffle Pigs Cafe--the gem of Field BC. In a tiny cafe, we play to a truly international audience hailing from Japan, New Zealand, Spain...and the wine is pretty good too! I get to hang out with Andrew, who I met on my first tour and is still the inspiration behind the worst hangover I've ever suffered while on tour...
posted by Carrie Catherine at 2:33 PM
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